AUSTIN, Texas — In the latest nod to the benefits of breaking a sweat, researchers at The University of Texas at Austin have punched out reliable findings that confirm what your gym teacher always said: physical activity betters your sleep and zaps stress. According to a new study, hitting that sweet spot of REM sleep just might be a jog away, as reported by the University of Texas News.
The research, published in Nature Scientific Reports, aces the notion that working out delays the onset of REM sleep—the phase filled with dreams and brain buzz. Showcasing data over multiple months, the study spanned activities at home and work, tracking 82 young adults using wearables that snitched data on their heart rates and Zzz's. With years of science and anecdotal hints backing up the claim, this new study steps away from the sterile one-night-stand scenarios of sleep labs, instead playing the long game by observing the exercise-sleep link in real life.
These Texan researchers didn't just sit on the sidelines. They went the full nine yards by using daily wellness reports from a dedicated smartphone app alongside the tracker. Along with confirming that breaking a sweat leads to higher energy levels and less stress the next day, they've made some significant calls on how daily activity types impact the very structure of our sleep cycles — the times we drift into light, deep, or REM sleep, as noted by UT News.
"You can learn a lot from lab studies, but there are limitations to studying the sleep patterns of individual participants in just one night," said Benjamin Baird, a research assistant professor of psychology and team player in the study. With wearables like Fitbits now being benched in favor of more science-focused gear, these devices can gauge sleep cycles in ways that could alter the field play of lifestyle and mood disorder research outside the lab.
This scholastic deep dive is rooted in a pilot program called Whole Communities–Whole Health, a macro approach to health data and community engagement in research. The bottom line? Lace-up those sneakers and ready yourself for some pillow-time luxury later on — or at least that's what the smartwatch might say. And for those wondering if their wearable tech can measure up, David M. Schnyer, co-author, and psychology department chair, reassured, "We’ve shown using a standard Fitbit that anyone could wear — not even an expensive scientific device — that it is sensitive to these sorts of sleep architecture measures, and in a way that’s showing predictive results,” according to UT News.
